I was lucky enough to be invited to contribute to this year's StarWars.com Halloween festivities in the form of a downloadable mask. I chose to do Emperor Palpatine, and this is how I created the image for the final mask . . .

Step 1: I did a rough sketch of old pruneface on ordinary computer printer paper. I knew that the mask would work best if the character were seen straight-on, so I decided to only draw half of the face and create the other half in Adobe Photoshop (that way the face would be perfectly symmetrical).

Step 2: After I was satisfied with the "half-Palps" rough sketch, I got a fresh piece of paper, put it over the original drawing and used my handy-dandy Light Tracer II to do a final inked version of the sketch (I don't do a finer, in-between sketch, I just go right for inking over the sketch on a blank sheet). Using Faber-Castell brush pens, I ink up the sucker in no time, immitating the look of brush-work with ease.

Step 3: Next, I scan the inked drawing into Photoshop using my Mustek scanner. After some magic involving "channels", I have a new Photoshop version of the line work without the white space (so that any color work on a layer beneath will show through). I then create a layer behind the line work which will be used for the base color layer, and also a new layer behind that filled with while (for a proper background).

When all of this is finished, I dupilcate the line work layer, flip it horizontally and merge the two, creating a symmetrical drawing of Palpatine's face. Some may call this kind of digital trickery "cheating". I call it "pragmatic time-saving techniques". Feel free to ignore my methods and go the traditional, old-fashioned route. I'll go my own way. I'm a creature of digital, and there's no going back for me.

Step 4: On the transparent, empty layer between the white background and the line work, I begin to fill in basic, flat colors using my Wacom Tablet and pen (an indespensable tool for anyone trying to use Photoshop or Painter to create digital artwork). I only color half the face, of course. When done, I do the old "duplicate-and-flip" trick and we have a fully colored flats layer.

Step 5: Once the flat colors are in place, I begin applying shades of light and dark (again, only on half of the face). This is my favorite step in the process, where I find the lighting style and begin to see the forms take shape with color. I love this part, especially on a face as wrinkled and creepy as Palpatine's. Once the coloring is complete, it's "duplicate-and-flip" time.

Step 6: The image is basically finished now. But since this piece is meant to be printed and cut out, I add a larger black border around our Emperor so that there is room to cut and still keep an outline.

Once this is done, I create a hi-res version to send off to the beautiful and witty Bonnie Burton, and the next time I see it . . . it's on StarWars.com!

I hope you enjoyed reading about the process!

-Otis

otisframpton.com

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